2002-10-01

2002-10-01 07:41PST (10:41EST) (15:41GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Job cuts fall to 22-month low
USA Today: Challenger: Planned lay-offs drop 41% in September
Cincinnati Business Journal: Job cuts drop to 22-month low in September
UPI: Job cuts drop 41%

2002-10-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 27,591 job ads

2002-10-02

2002-10-02 05:02PST (08:02EST) (13:02GMT)
Steve Gelsi _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
KPMG Consulting body shop changes name to BearingPoint

2002-10-02
John Rossheim _monster_
Does the Future Hold a Job Boom or Bust?
"Earlier this year, 27% of employers said they expected to hire more workers in the third quarter of 2002, whereas only 24% of companies plan to staff up in the fourth quarter, according to [body shop] Manpower Inc.'s Employment Outlook Survey...   says Janet Ruhl, ...'companies are exporting their IT departments to India.'...   Many Americans might be shocked to hear there were 52.9M 'separations' of workers & their employers from 2001 May to 2002 May, according to the BLS.   But there were also 52.3M hires over the same period, & non-farm pay-roll employment decreased by 1.4M..."

2002-10-02
_Reuters_/_CBS.MarketWatch.com_/_Credit Suisse First Boston_
Software spending likely to be weak thru 2003
"Corporate software spending has been falling since mid-2000 & the stocks of many major software names have shed considerable value after soaring in the free-spending 1990s."

2002-10-02
_AP_/_ABCnews.com_ Company Ends Computer Science Exams: Testing Company Cancels Computer Science Exam After Questions & Answers Are Posted OnLine
"ETS suspended the exam in [Red China], Hong Kong & India through the 2002-2003 school year after determining that Asian Web sites had provided students in those places with a study guide comprised of questions and answers from previous tests.   Last year, 1,250 computer science tests were taken in [Red China], Hong Kong & India by students hoping to specialize in high-tech fields at U.S. graduate schools.   In August, ETS temporarily suspended students in [Red China], Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea from taking the Graduate Record Exam... via computer after a similar Internet scheme was uncovered.   An estimated 55K students in those nations will take the GRE on paper when it is administered in November and April."
 

2002-10-03

2002-10-03 06:54PDT (09:54EDT) (13:54GMT)
Barbara Kollmayer _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Corporate privacy needs fuel a fast-growing job field
"In early 2001, corporate America employed fewer than 1K privacy officers.   By the end of next year, an estimated 10K such positions will exist, according to Privacy and American Business (PA&B), part of the non-profit Center for Social and Legal Research...   By next April, 30K health-care entities must comply with HIPAA, or The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996, part of which involves detailed privacy rules for the handling of personally identifiable health information...   For financial institutions, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 has spurred a similar need."

2002-10-03
Andy Borowitz
Torricelli stumbles on his way out (humor)

2002-10-03
Dimitri Vassilaros _Pittsburgh Tribune-Review_
Ken Krawchuck: It's obvious that a hand-gun is a girl's best friend
"One of the most effective ways [to improve security on and near college & university campuses] would be to include firearms training as part of freshman orientation...   Each student would be encouraged to consider whether to own a firearm.   Instead of down-playing the policy, the school should send news releases to every media outlet and encourage reporters to sit in on the orientation."
 

2002-10-04

2002-10-04
William Dunkelberg _NFIB_
Small-Business Employment: Economist Says Jobless Recovery Continues
"There is no strength in hiring plans for the balance of the year, with the net percent of firms planning to expand employment falling from 14% in August to 7% in September, not a recession number but certainly well below the levels that prevailed from 1995 to 2000.   Prospects for job creation are muted.   Hard-to-fill job openings are lower as well, as firms decide not to fill positions in the face of slowly growing sales or fill them in this weaker labor market."
NBER says recession that troughed in 2001 April ended 2001 November.   The stock market crashed 2000-03-10.   The STEM job markets were already diving by 2000 September, and general job markets in mid-2001.   STEM product sales were tanking all through 2001 and 2002.   Job markets still had not fully recovered by the end of 2016.

2002-10-04
Ashu Kumar _ZD Net India News_
Leg-up for India as Global IT players cut R&D budgets
"National Association of Software & Service Companies (NASSCOM) vice president for research Sunil Mehta also confirmed that the R&D budgets of global infotech companies were under pressure especially in the hardware & telecom sectors."
 

2002-10-05

2002-10-05
Steve Everly _KC Star_
Aquila Employee Fired after Criticizing Company in E-mail
 

2002-10-06

2002-10-06
Michael Kinsman _San Diego Union-Tribune_
Employee privacy takes another hit
"Thanks to new legislation signed by governor Gray Davis, Olson and thousands of other job applicants across the state can continue to take advantage of their right to request the results of background checks prospective employers make about them.   But now they have to ask first.   Job applicants and workers should have been receiving those results automatically since January, when a law requiring employers to provide such information went into effect...   On 2002 January 1, Assembly Bill 655 went into effect.
  The law was intended to guard against identity theft by requiring companies that use third parties to gather information on potential hires to share the results of those searches with the job candidates.   Employers doing background checks for credit histories, driving records, court records, educational credentials and other public documents found they had to disclose all of that information...   Jean Bruni, an attorney for the San Diego Employers Association, heard complaints after AB 655 went into effect...   Assembly Bill 1068 and Assembly Bill 2868 -- that are intended to clarify the former law.
  Now, employees have the right to request background check information if it is compiled by their current employers or someone else.   Employers, meanwhile, can conduct confidential reference checks or internal investigations without sharing those findings with the individual."

2002-10-06
Bob Weinstein _Star Tribune_/_InfoTrack_
Tech watch: Do not be upset: you have only been selected out
"Lutz identifies almost 100 doublespeak terms that companies have been peddling in the past few years -- for example: dehire; deselect, destaff, de-employ, derecruit, right-size, correct-size, select out, release, non-retain, displace, idle in definitely, retire prematurely, eliminate redundancies in the human resources area, request departure, selectively separate, strengthen global effectiveness, offer voluntary severance, refocus the company's skill set, reposition, reduce duplication, focus reduction, complement adjustment & normal pay-roll adjustment... uninstalled..."
 

2002-10-07

2002-10-06 21:01PDT (2002-10-07 00:01EDT) (2002-10-07 04:01GMT)
Barbara Kollmeyer _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Perking up employees: Companies keep free coffee flowing for productivity boost
"They've cut pay, increased hours & boosted work-loads, but most USA employers are keeping free workplace coffee brewing, recognizing productivity is at stake...   After consistent growth for the past 9 years, the industry blames the recession & a shrinking workforce for a 5% loss in overall sales last year, from $3.63G to $3.43G, according to the 2002 State of Coffee Service Industry, from Automatic Merchandiser magazine.   That survey also noted that in the last 5 years, the number of specialty coffee drinkers has quadrupled to 27M."

2002-10-07 11:24PDT (14:24EDT) (18:24GMT)
Caroline Humer _Reuters_/_Yahoo!_
Tech Spending Seen Rising 7%
"Worldwide spending on technology will rise 3.4% in 2002 & 7% next year, research firm Gartner Dataquest said on Monday, scaling back its earlier forecasts by several percentage points...   Software revenues will grow 3.6% to $77G in 2002 & then grow another 6.5% to $82G in 2003."

2002-10-07
Gene Koretz _Business Week_
Unpalatable Tech Stats
"For some time there's been a puzzling divergence between the government's economic statistics and industry reports.   Government statistics have shown a small but significant rise in domestic business spending on information-technology equipment and software since the fourth quarter of 2001.   Yet most tech companies keep reporting weak and falling revenues...   While domestic demand may be growing, albeit slowly, the trade statistics show a sharp collapse in the demand over-seas for US technology exports.   For example, in the first 7 months of 2002, exports of semiconductors were down by 15% from the same period the year before.   Exports of computers and computer accessories slid by 25%, as did those of telecom equipment.   All told, exports of these information-technology goods fell by 21%, about double the 11% decline in imports...   In the first 7 months of the year, advanced technology exports declined by 16%...   in the down-turn of the early 1990s, tech exports just kept rising and barely dipped afterward.   Further, the USA continued to run a technology trade surplus, which hit $38G in the 1991 recession year.   But this time, tech exports have fallen off a cliff.   As a result, the latest trade statistics for 2002 July, show the biggest deficit ever in advanced technology products, plunging to an annual rate of about $12G (based on a three-month average).   By comparison, the USA was running a $6G trade surplus the year before on these products."
NBER says recession that troughed in 2001 April ended 2001 November.   The stock market crashed 2000-03-10.   The STEM job markets were already diving by 2000 September, and general job markets in mid-2001.   STEM product sales were tanking all through 2001 and 2002.   Job markets still had not fully recovered by the end of 2016.

2002-10-07
Adam Nagourney & Janet Elder _NY Times_
Public Says Bush Needs to Pay Heed to Weak Economy

2002-10-07
Thomas Hoffman _ComputerWorld_
IT advances to drive lots of job cuts, Gartner predicts

1. Adding bandwidth will become more cost-effective than buying new computers.
2. Most major new systems will be interenterprise or cross-enterprise systems.
3. Despite the complexities, interenterprise systems will provide a macroeconomic boost to companies.
4. [Computing advances will reduce jobs.]
5. The consolidation of vendors will continue in many segments of the IT market.
6. Moore's Law will hold true through this decade.   Claunch said continued technological advancements in areas such as nanotube transistors and storage in nanometer holes will make it possible for the following leaps in computing power within 6 years: 40-GHz processors, 1.5TB disks in the average PC, 4GB to 12GB average PC RAM and four to eight CPUs per chip.
7. Banks will become the primary providers of "presence services" by 2007.
8. Business activity monitoring will hit the mainstream within 5 years.
9. Business units, not IT, will make most application decisions.
10. The pendulum swings back to decentralized IT operations by 2004.

2002-10-07
Marcia Dunn _AP_/_Tallahassee Demagogue_
Astronaut trades cycles for shuttles: Duane Carey's story proves a slacker can always shift gears
"he slept through high school because he was working 40 hours a week to save up for a motorcycle?...   he hit the road on his new Suzuki as soon as he got his diploma and spent the next 2.5 years bumming around?...   he hitch-hiked and jumped freight trains from state to state?   Sure, Carey eventually became an Air Force officer, flew combat missions in the Gulf War, racked up a pair of engineering degrees and even home-schooled his two kids in math and science.   But would NASA want a former railroad bum and eternal motorcycle nut for a space shuttle pilot..."

2002-10-07
James Chambers of the Small Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (quoted in Jeff Johnson _Cybercast News Service_
Media and Authorities Fudge Gun Facts in Shootings)
"The .223 is a small game cartridge used for small game & varmint hunting.   It is about half as powerful as the .30-06 or .308 caliber, which are the big game rifles for deer, elk, antelope, etcetera.   The .223 is not classified as a high-powered cartridge...   The AR-15 is not an assault weapon; it's a semi-automatic or auto-loading firearm ... one bullet per trigger pull...   the military definition of an 'assault weapon' is a fully automatic weapon...   The .223 cartridge is accurately referred to as a 'high-velocity' round, because the bullet travels at between 3000 and 3200 feet per second, depending on the weapon from which it is fired and the amount & type of powder loaded into the shell casing...   It is a very accurate round when used by someone with a great deal of experience.   You can make very accurate shots from fairly long ranges, out to 500 yards."
 

2002-10-08

2002-10-08
Eileen Gunn _WSJ_
Why Appearance Matters In a Post-50 Job Search
"'They want to know that you're going to look sharp and project energy when you meet clients.', Mr. Hall says.   On a scale of 1 to 10, looking fit and trim was 'probably a 6, in terms of helping me to get a job.'   The hardest part about looking for a job when you're over 50 is that you're no longer 40, or 35, or whatever that magic age is that suggests bushy-tailed youth to you.   It can seem as though every hiring manager sees your slightly crinkled brow and immediately wonders if you're up on the latest industry trends, if you're willing to work past five o'clock, and whether you'll have a clue as to what a BlackBerry pager is.
  It's tempting to try to turn back the clock -- just far enough that these questions don't even come to your interviewer's mind.   In this latest, tough job market, some people are doing just that: 30% of men and 14% of women who had cosmetic surgery in 2001 say the decision was work-related, according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Alexandria, VA...
  Career coaches acknowledge that looking younger -- or looking less old -- can shorten a job search if you go about it in a sensible way and have realistic expectations (and if all the other parts of the equation, such as your job history, are what they should be).   'Older men and women who are fit definitely have fewer re-entry challenges.', notes Joyce K. Reynolds, a business coach in Fort Lauderdale, FL.   For some, looking younger does mean literally knocking five or 10 years off their bodies by dyeing their hair or getting cosmetic work.   (One surgeon reported that breast reduction was a common request among aging executive men.)   But for others, such as Mr. Hall, it's more a matter of drawing attention to qualities they still possess, but that are too quickly associated with youth -- vigor, longevity and the ability to generate fresh ideas...   if your hair-cut or eye-glasses or shoes look 10 years out of date, interviewers will wonder if your business skills are out of date, too."

2002-10-08
Michelle Kessler _USA Today_
Computer majors down amid tech bust: More S&E shortage propaganda
"At the University of Michigan, enrollment in a key course for computer science majors is down 20%.   A similar course at Ohio State University has seen a 30% drop.   Enrollment is off 10% this year at the University of Florida's engineering school, says dean Jonathan Earle...   Hires of high-tech workers plunged 27% to 834,727 this year, says trade group Information Technology Association of America.   More than 334K tech and telecom workers have lost jobs this year, says employment firm Challenger Gray & Christmas...   Virginia Tech's computer science [department's] freshman enrollment in computer science is down 25%."
 

2002-10-09

2002-10-09 06:19PDT (09:19EDT) (13:19GMT)
Michelle Kessler _USA Today_
tech hiring fell, again, this year
"Hires of high-tech workers fell 27% to 834,727 this year, says trade group Information Technology Association of America.   More than 334K tech & telecom workers have lost their jobs this year, says employment firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.   The average tech job search now takes about 6 months, recruiters say, up from 3 months a year ago."

2002-10-09 07:18PDT (10:18EDT) (14:18GMT)

Crime on Campus

2002-10-09 09:13PDT (12:13EDT) (16:13GMT)
Michelle Kessler _USA Today_
Computer majors down amid tech bust
"Hires of high-tech workers plunged 27% to 834,727 this year, says trade group Information Technology Association of America.   More than 334K tech & telecomm workers have lost jobs this year, says employment firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.   The average tech job search now takes about 6 months, recruiters say, up from 3 months a year ago."
 

2002-10-10

2002-10-10 07:21PDT (10:21EDT) (14:21GMT)
Mike Tarsala _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Tech loses jobs as others gain
Reuters: Tech Industry's Job Losses May Be Slowing
"US technology companies cut 437K workers from 2001 January through [2002] June...   The tech industry employed 5.27M workers in June, down 7.5% from the start of 2001, according to the American Electronics Association, a 3K-member Washington-based technology lobbying group...   Over the same period, the U.S. private sector in total added 896K increasing non-government employment by 0.8%.   The tech industry had [led] all major industry groups with a 15% increase in jobs in 1998 & 1999.   The sector also showed about 5% job growth in 2000, according to the AEA study.   In the 18-months ended in June, tech companies employed 4.8% of the total U.S. work force, down from 5.2% at the job market peak in 2001 March.
  Technology manufacturing [dropped] 1.4M workers, or 16.5% of its total work force over the 18-month period.   The total U.S. manufacturing sector declined 7.4% over the same period.   [One exception] was electro-medical equipment, which increased to 62,100 total jobs, up 4.2%...   employment growth in the construction industry was 8.4% over the 18 month period.   Meanwhile, health-care employment increased 4.6%, & retail jobs rose 1.7%...
  U.S. tech is among the highest-paying industries in the world.   Workers in electronic-product manufacturing make a mean salary of about $64K annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.   Telecom workers earn $59K a year.   Workers at Internet service providers & search portals make about $51K.   In comparison, the mean construction salary is $28K, & most retailer workers earn only $19K...   Unemployment in Santa Clara County, the region's heart, was 7.6% in August, compared with 1.3% in 2000 December, according to California's Employment Development Department."

2002-10-10
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen _Time_
Will Manage for Food
"The number of Americans unemployed for 6 or more months hit 1.6M last month, up 93% from a year ago...   only 12% of laid-off managers are willing to relocate for jobs, according to Chicago out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas -- the lowest since the company began tracking that figure in 1986...   white-collar workers now make up a whopping 48% of those unemployed for 27 or more weeks, up from 39% just a year ago...   According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 11.4% of jobless managers & executives started businesses in the first half of 2002 -- up from 7.9% in the same period a year ago."

2002-10-10
Martha McNeil Hamilton _Washington Post_
Signs of Bottoming Out In Tech Employment
AeA report
"During the first 6 months of the year [2002] 113K jobs disappeared from the technology industry, [AeA] said, continuing a trend that has wiped out 336,100 jobs in the past year & a half.   But there are signs both nationally & locally that the worst might be over.   In May & June, after a 14-month string of declines, high-tech employment stayed steady at 5.27M jobs, according to the study...   Silicon Valley had a 7.6% unemployment rate & that the Washington metropolitan area was the only one of 51 metropolitan areas with a population of 1M or more where the unemployment rate was under 4%."

2002-10-10
Jim Schutze _Dallas Observer_
If Dallas cops are so destitute, how come police station parking lots look like the auto show?
"Police officers vest in the plan at 5 years.   They can retire at age 50.   Their retirement pay is 3% times years of service times average annual salary figured on their best 3 best consecutive years...   The average officer makes a salary of $56K a year, or a little better.   He or she makes an average of $3,700 a year in departmental over-time, so total cash compensation comes to about 60 grand...   that average cop pulling down $60K a year in pay is also making $15K a year in contributions to the pension plan and about five grand in other benefits, cashing him out at about 80 grand a year."

2002-10-10
Paul Craig Roberts _VDare_
As Bush Gears Up To Send Army Over-Seas, American Jobs Are Already There
 

2002-10-11

2002-10-11 07:21:32PDT (10:21:32EDT) (14:21:32GMT)
_MarketWatch_
"ComScore Media Metrix... estimated that consumer on-line sales for the week ending September 29 totaled $1.4G, a 46% rise from the same week a year ago.   Computer hardware sales were up 113%, flowers & gifts ahead 98%, and home & garden items gained 82%."

2002-10-11 15:27PDT (18:27EDT) (22:27GMT)
Julie Rannazzisi _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Bulls invade Wall Street
"Stocks broke a 6-week losing streak to register their first weekly gain since late August.   The Dow finished the week up 4.3%, the Nasdaq 6.2% & the S&P 4.4%."
 

2002-10-12

2002-10-12
Diane Alden _Free Republic_
Billionaire Collectivist Running-Dog Pigs on a Roll
"For many of us, it is difficult to consider that so-called capitalists are in fact collectivists.   Perhaps we have been so preoccupied with other things, like wars, national events and social problems, that we didn't notice.   Nevertheless, this nation and its institutions continue the long march toward the Corporate Collectivist State.   In bygone times this would have been called a feudal system.   These days it is dubbed globalism, the New World Order, or the Third Way.   To reverse a phrase made famous by Martha Stewart -- it is NOT a good thing...
Social critic Robert Locke defines one aspect of this new paradigm by calling it 'corporatism'.   According to Locke, 'It has the outward form of capitalism in that it preserves private ownership and private management, but with a crucial difference: as under socialism, government guarantees the flow of material goods, which under true capitalism it does not.'...
Collectivists are gladdened as Western society is reconfigured into oppressor and victim classes, with the help of the modern Marxist Antonio Gramsci, who with a few others from the Frankfurt School of Social Theory gave us political correctness, identity politics, non-assimilation of immigrants and mediocre education that does not support a Western-oriented American identity.   It also gave us the tools they use on the great unwashed through the use of psycho-social controlling mind games."

2002-10-12 01:49PDT (04:49EDT) (08:49GMT)
Julie Rannazzisi _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
First weekly gain for stocks in 7 weeks: Earnings floodgates to open next week
"A late-week buying spree allowed the Dow to end the week up 4.3%, the Nasdaq 6.2% & the S&P 500 4.4%.   The Dow put on 564 points in 2 sessions [days] of robust rallies on Thursday & Friday.   It was also the first time the Dow & S&P 500 were able to rise for 2 consecutive days since September 26."

2002-10-12
Mike Cassidy _San Jose Mercury News_
As economy keeps dragging, things feel scary
"This down-turn is bad.   It was supposed to be over by now.   The experts have been saying for months that it will all get better next quarter.   Or 2 quarters from now.   Or just after that at the latest.   But it hasn't.   And there is no reason to think it will."
 

2002-10-13

2002-10-13
Urmi A. Goswami _The Economic Times_
Fortress Europe
"The high-tech field, since 1999, has been growing twice as fast as Germany's total economic performance; number of jobs generated in these areas has increased at a dramatic pace with 30K to 40K new jobs being created each year.   Many young professionals like Singh want to cash in on this boom.   However, moving to Germany or any of the European Union country is a tough proposition...   company hiring outside the EU must prove to the government that no EU national was available or qualified for the position."

2002-10-13
Mike Cassidy _San Jose Mercury News_
Mike Cassidy: As economy keeps dragging, things feel scary

2002-10-13
Margaret Steen _San Jose Mercury News_
Long lay-offs leave financial, mental impact: Jobless Try to Make Most of Hiatus
"The months of fruitless searching, penny-pinching & worrying are dragging on much longer than anyone expected.   Some are now counting the time since their last regular pay-check in years, not months.   Their financial & emotional resources are wearing thin...   nationally, about 1.6M people had been unemployed for more than 6 months in September.   In California, more than 280K people qualified for the federal extension of unemployment benefits from March to August, which in most cases means they had already received 6 months of state benefits without finding work."

2002-10-13
_NOAA_
Odds the Weather Could Kill You
"In the U.S., lightning kills an average of 73 people yearly, tornadoes 68, and hurricane 16 deaths annually."
 

2002-10-14

2002-10-13 21:01PDT (2002-10-14 00:01EDT) (2002-10-14 04:01GMT)
Mike Tarsala _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Bear to growl in third-qtr tech earnings
"Monday is expected to mark 1,001 days of the bear market, which began on 2000-01-14, according to research from Trend Macrolytics, an economic & market research group.   The longest bear market to date began on 1929-09-07, & was also 1,001 days."

2002-10-14
_Fortune_
Dude, Where's My Job
"A 30-year-old today is 50% more likely to have a bachelor's degree than his counterpart in 1974 & earns $5K more a year, adjusted for inflation."

2002-10-14 08:46PDT (11:46EDT) (15:46GMT)
Bambi Francisco _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Application software's bumpy road: survey shows Internet start-ups still shutting down
"To this day, 31 months after the bubble burst in 2000 March, Internet companies are shuttering their doors.   In the third quarter, 29 Internet companies shut down, bringing the total number of Internet shut-downs or bankruptcies to 900, or about 10% of the roughly 8,500 Internet companies funded, according to Webmergers.com.   The good news is that the number of shut-downs is 76% below the 119 from the year-ago period."

2002-10-14
Richard W. Stevenson _NY Times_/_CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Bush to Get Options on Revamping Extortion System
"Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill told an audience in Iowa today that he intended to deliver options to the White House in a few weeks.   Aides said he meant some time after Election Day...   the White House did not intend to make a specific legislative proposal soon, especially if Mr. Bush pushes ahead next year with his proposal to add personal investment accounts to Social Security.   Instead, the people who have met the officials said, the White House appears more likely to spend the next year or 2 building support for simplifying the tax law & eliminating provisions that they view as inhibiting economic growth...   But the current system is also designed to modify the behavior of millions of [tax-victims], sometimes in contradictory ways.   [Tax victims] are rewarded for buying homes, saving for retirement, getting married, getting divorced, having children, working at home, getting sick, giving to charity & even for going blind."

2002-10-14
Chris McManus _IEEE USA_
Engineers Recieve Mixed News on Un-Employment
"While the un-employment rate for engineers fell for the first time since early 2001, the number of engineering jobs also dropped below 2M for the first time in 5 years.   The un-employment rate for all engineers declined from 4.0% in the second quarter of 2002 to 3.4% in the third quarter, according to figures released last week by the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.   The good news was offset by a substantial drop in engineering jobs, which fell from 2.027M to 1.923M.   Of the major engineering disciplines, mechanical engineers were the hardest hit, losing 49K jobs.   Aerospace engineers lost 26K jobsÖ   The number of jobless computer scientists and systems analysts also declined, from 95K (5.3%) in the second quarter to 84K (4.6%) in the third.   At the same time, the number of employed workers in these fields increased by 35K to 1.717M."
 

2002-10-15

2002-10-14 21:01PDT (2002-10-15 00:01EDT) (2002-10-15 04:01GMT)
Kristen Gerencher _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Utility, wireless are bills most often paid late
"The utility bill is most likely to slide into the past due category, with more than half of consumers -- 54% - missing the deadline, according to a survey of more than 1K Americans from Western Union, a money transfer and bill payment company in Denver.   Wireless and cell phone bills take a back seat for 43%, while 36% report putting credit card payments off, the survey said."

2002-10-14 21:21:48PDT (2002-10-15 00:21:48EDT) (04:21:48GMT)
Bambi Francisco _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Bambi Francisco's Net Sense: Can justice be served
"By one estimate, the average executive's pay soared to roughly 531 times the average worker's in the past 40 years.   The ratio was 12 in 1960."

2002-10-14 21:21:48PDT (2002-10-15 00:21:48EDT) (2002-10-15 04:21:48GMT)
Bambi Francisco _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Bambi Francisco's Net Sense: Can justice be served?
"And unless we want law-makers to use this unjust situation for their own gain, the private sector needs to show a willingness to adopt new reforms & initiatives regarding pay in the executive suites...   Senior executives must disgorge profits made through sales of stock during periods for which a company restates revenue & earnings regardless of the reason...   In fiscal 2002, ending September, the Securities & Exchange Commission sought disgorgement of compensation & bonuses & or stock options in 25 cases, said John Heine, an SEC spokesperson...   The disgorged funds are given to any victims of stock manipulation, such as share-holders, or the U.S. Treasury.   In many of those cases, the SEC alleges fraudulent activity, & generally the cases involve problems with financial statements...
  In the venture capital community, the investors, or limited partners, get their money returned before the VCs, or general partners, receive any pay.   Often in contracts between general partners & limited partners, there is a clause that essentially states that GPs can share in the profits before the LPs get their money back, BUT the LPs can 'claw back' those same profits if the GPs don't ever turn a profit.   Translation: General partners can make money, but investors can snatch it back if they don't perform...
  More companies are instituting options that vest only when certain performance criteria are met rather then when a certain number of years are passed...   Another measurement is performance relative to peers.   So, even if a stock goes up or revenues go up, if it's below the peer group companies, the grants or bonuses wouldn't kick in...   While expensing options combined with efforts to stay within stock dilution guidelines will force many companies to cut back on grants to senior managers, as [Michael Kesner, a partner at Deloitte & Touche] noted, they'll also limit the amount afforded to key executives."

2002-10-15 14:43PDT (17:43EDT) (21:43GMT)
Jennifer Waters _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Motorola Corp. delivered on its promise of profitability with third-quarter net earnings of 5 cents a share, or $111M...   For the third quarter, the telecommunications giant said profits, excluding all items, came in at 6 cents a share, or $141M

2002-10-15
_Travail_ The bill relating to pay, the working week and job creation in France

2002-10-15
Ted Plafker _International Herald Tribune_
Cheating on international exams also said to be wide-spread
"The bad news is that hundreds of thousands of [Chinese students] have opted to hit the streets and buy fake [diplomas] on the black market, rather than hit the books and earn realones in the halls of academe...   students and graduates routinely forge transcripts and reference letters...   Such fraud also has a huge impact inside [Red China].   State media reported in September on a nationwide campaign to hunt down thousands of party and government officials who have been promoted on the basis of fake diplomas or other falsehoods in their resumes."

2002-10-15
Jack Powers (former chair of Internet World; quoted in CBS.MarketWatch alert)
"A, business sucks.   B, business sucks.   And C, nobody's got any money...   Eventually the Internet will drop off the front pages & turn into a quiet little, multi-billion dollar industry."
 

2002-10-16

2002-10-15 21:04PST (2002-10-16 00:04EST) (2002-10-16 05:04GMT)
Kristen Gerencher _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
The makings of a good boss: Sharing responsibility, credit best traits, survey says
"46% of 4,500 visitors to HotJobs.com said a willingness to share responsibility & credit was the most important hallmark of a good boss...   Mentoring employees was second among the free online job board's users with a 26% vote, followed by supervisors who respect others' opinions at 18%...   Only 2% named clout as the most important managerial characteristic."

2002-10-16 12:31PDT (15:31EDT) (19:31GMT)
Luisa Beltran _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Andersen sentenced to only 5 years probation and $500K

2002-10-16
Katharine Hansen _Quint Careers_
Behavioral Interviewing Strategies
"Behavioral interviewing is a relatively new mode of job interviewing.   Employers such as AT&T and Accenture (the former Andersen Consulting) have been using behavioral interviewing for about 15 years now..."

2002-10-16
_Silicon India_
India's IT sector shows signs of renewed life
"The bigger players in the sector such as Infosys Technologies & Hughes Software Systems have fared better than expected in the quarter ended 2002 September 30...   After a year in which software firms slashed salaries, froze headcount & resorted to low-key lay-offs, Indian companies have resumed hiring as they eye a slew of new large orders that had faded away in the tech melt-down."

2002-10-16
Crayton Harrison _Knight Ridder Tribune_
"DALLAS - Bob Duke was growing exasperated on Dell Computer Corp.'s customer service hot-line.   Again the Arlington, Texas, resident told the service representative that his computer wasn't plugged in, and again she asked him to turn the computer on and check for the little green light, speaking in an accent that was hard for Duke to understand."

2002-10-16
Kavita Nair _ZD Net India_
Rising off-shore costs: IT companies feel the heat
"Rising salaries & an upward trend in off-shore servicing costs stare IT services companies in the face today...   While SCSL's off-shore costs (specifically on salaries) have risen by 7% on an average in FY02, Datamatics' off-shore costs have risen by about 6%...   multi-national (MNC) IT services companies & product companies are opening centres in India & have been attracting talent from domestic companies which has caused a shift in the supply of IT professionals.   Added to this is the fact that utility ESOPs (employee stock options schemes) are low in domestic IT services companies & the MNCs are better paymasters...   Says Dr Kanodia, 'There has been a 10% reduction in the salaries of IT professionals in the US according to a study.   So there is pressure from the over-seas buyers to either maintain the price and sometimes even reduce it.'...   Nevertheless, adds Dr Kanodia, the increase in domestic wages, coupled with the 10% reduction in salaries of IT professionals in the US and the 7%-8% overall increase in costs in India is squeezing the margins of Indian IT service providers...   Satyam's strategy is to focus on improving the utilisation rate and thereby the 'revenue yield per associate'.   Srinivas says, 'The company currently has an off-shore utilisation of around 73%.   The idea is to increase it to 78%-80%.   Recruitment will be done on a need-only basis of "lateral" associates so that they are billable immediately instead of hiring freshers.'."

2002-10-16 08:11PDT (11:11EDT) (15:11GMT)
Frank Barnako "Internet Daily" _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Web users ask 'Who can you trust?'
"The quarterly gauge of America's use and attitudes about the Internet is produced jointly by NFO WorldGroup (IPG), Forrester Research (FORR) & the Conference Board.   Many consumers still don't fully trust that their personal information is secure, said Lynn Franco, a board director.   About 1 in 4 Web users does not trust personal information will be safe while doing personal research or communication tasks, while only 22% believe on-line purchasing data transactions are secure."
 

2002-10-17

2002-10-16 21:01PDT (2002-10-17 00:01EDT) (2002-10-17 04:01GMT)
Kristen Gerencher _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Phony sick-time users a drag: Cost to companies highest in 12 years of tracking
"About two-thirds of employees said they use paid sick time to cover other needs, meaning only a third who call in sick actually are, according to a survey of 333 human-resource executives from CCH Inc, a human resources software firm.   Of workers not genuinely ill, 24% identified family issues as the reason for their unscheduled absences, followed by personal needs at 21%, stress relief at 12% & a feeling of entitlement at 10%, the survey said.   The rate of people taking unscheduled absences held steady from the prior year...   Firms that let employees take time off in smaller than 8-hour increments to run errands, for example, generally see less sick-day usage...   Workers took an average 6.2 sick days in the year ended June 30, down from 6.8 days the year before.   But employers shrunk their offered sick time to 7.6 days from 8.4 days in 2001.   In recent years, employers offered the most sick time during the tight labor market in 1999 - 12.2 days, according to CCH.   Workers used 4.4 sick days that year."

2002-10-17
Thomas Stengle _DoL ETA_
unemployment insurance weekly claims
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 383,449 in the week ending October 12, an increase of 17,560 from the previous week.   There were 426,880 initial claims in the comparable week in 2001.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4% during the week ending October 5, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,026,529, an increase of 70,418 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.2% and the volume was 2,797,434."
graphs

2002-10-17
Marcelene Edwards _Tacoma News Tribune_
3 companies, 1 theme: Lay-offs, lay-offs, lay-offs
"The newest lay-offs will be focused in the finance & information technology departments.   Other departments were cut earlier this year...   Between 2001 & today, the Puget Sound economy has lost 100K jobs..."

2002-10-17
Stanley Accrington _San Jose Mercury News_
Job migration is draining Silicon Valley
"The hourly pay rate for phone solicitors in the United States isn't much.   But it's so much lower still in India that it more than off-sets the increased phone costs...   These are not the only jobs that used to be done in America but are now done in India, Russia or Ireland.   I mentioned above that I was laid off from my job as a software QA manager.   My job, & the jobs of the 9 people in my team are now being done in Bangalore, India...   It has literally taken $1M out of the Silicon Valley economy & injected perhaps half that amount into India's economy.   My job with that company & all the other jobs are permanently gone.   Even when we get through this recession, & companies start hiring again, they won't be hiring here for those positions -- ever again.   This isn't an isolated case.   All the big computer companies like Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard & Intel are patriotically waving the flag in public & asking for new government contracts, but privately moving as much information technology development work as possible out of the United States...   If you make it inconvenient for companies to use H-1B staff, all you are doing is making it correspondingly more attractive for them to ship the entire job abroad...   The general unemployment rate in Santa Clara county is 7%-8%, but among information technology staff it could be 15%."
 

2002-10-18

2002-10-17 21:02PST (2002-10-18 00:02EST) (2002-10-18 05:02GMT)
Rebecca Samuels _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Finding a calling: Private counselors help college-bound chart career paths

2002-10-18
James Mathew & Krishna Kant _Economic Times of India_
H-1B visa holders may not have to pay social security tax soon
"India is close to signing the administrative protocol with the US on abolishing social security tax charged by the US administration on those H-1B visa holders.   The administrative protocol is the first step towards India being able to sign the final agreement with the US government on the withdrawal of the tax on large number of Indians, estimated to be about 60K to 70K at any point of time, on short-term employment visas in the United States.   The waiver on the tax-charged currently at the rate of 17% to 21.5% of their total salaries-could result in savings of billions of dollars annually."

2002-10-18 05:46PDT (08:46EDT) (12:46GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Imports boost trade gap to record: August tab totals $38.5G; Red China deficit at high
"Imports rose an estimated 2% to $120.3G, the highest level since 2001March, when the recession officially began.   Exports, meanwhile, shrank 1.3% to $81.9G...   The July deficit was revised higher to $35.1G from the $34.6G estimated a month ago...   Imports of consumer goods rose by more than $1G or 4.2% to a record $26.7G in August.   Imports from Red China rose to a record $12.7G as Americans snapped up apparel, toys, shoes, appliances & other consumer goods.   The deficit with Red China hit a record $10.9G...   Imports of capital goods fell by $275M or 1.1% to $23.7G...   Imports of advanced technology products such as computers & telecommunications equipment fell 4.1% to $16.3G...   Imports of services climbed 1.1% to a record $20.1G, largely on increased purchases by the Pentagon.   U.S. producers saw foreign markets shrink.   Exports of capital goods fell 1.5% to $24.9G, due to a 28.3% drop in exports of civilian aircraft.   [A drop in civilian aircraft imports exceeded the $275M drop in capital goods imports.]   Exports of aircraft engines & parts increased, however.   Exports of advanced technology products rose 1.5% to $15.1G.   Exports of consumer goods fell 1.9%, exports of food & feeds dropped 7.1% & exports of autos & parts dropped 3.9%."

2002-10-18 16:11PDT (19:11EDT) (23:11GMT)
Jeremy Pelofsky _Yahoo! News_/_Reuters_
WorldCom Proposes $25M in Retention Bonuses
"Bankrupt WorldCom Inc. on Friday proposed giving 325 of its key employees about $25M in bonuses to stay with the company while it reorganizes under bankruptcy protection, but excluded the 4 most senior positions."
 

2002-10-19

2002-10-19 01:26PDT (04:26EDT) (08:26GMT)
Julie Rannazzisi _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stock averages end higher for second consecutive week
"The stock indexes also got their second consecutive week of upside, with the Dow heaping on 6%, the Nasdaq 6.4% & the S&P 500 5.9%.   It has been a breathtaking run for stocks since the Dow ended at a 5-year low & the Nasdaq at a 6-year low on October 9...   Over the past seven trading days, the Dow is up 1,036 points, or 14%, & the Nasdaq 173 points, or 15.5%...   Another jam-packed week of earnings will be the focus of investors, with about 30% of S&P 500 companies announcing their results [and] 7 Dow companies...   the August trade deficit swelled 9.7% to a record $38.5G, much wider than the $35.6G that had been expected by economists...   Additionally, the September consumer price index rose by an as-expected 0.2% while the core -- which excludes the volatile food & energy components -- inched up 0.1%, less than the 0.2% increase that had been expected by economists...   In the currency sector, the dollar inched up 0.3% to 125.50 yen while the euro added 0.1% to 97.19 cents."

2002-10-19
John Taylor _Omaha World Herald_
Goodyear to cut 480 jobs in Lincoln by 2003
"In all, 480 employees with less seniority will lose their jobs.   Based on the original announcement, the end would come sometime in 2003.   The company said it wanted to find cheaper ways to make the product.   The company said the site in northern Mexico was selected because there were enough skilled workers who had access to transportation.   Goodyear also said the Mexican site would enable it to experience 'lower-cost manufacturing', & will employ 225 workers there by 2004."
 

2002-10-20

2002-10-20
Paul Krugman _NY Times_
The Disappearing Middle
"Over the past 30 years most people have seen only modest salary increases: the average annual salary in America, expressed in 1998 dollars (that is, adjusted for inflation), rose from $32,522 in 1970 to $35,864 in 1999.   That's about a 10% increase over 29 years -- progress, but not much.
  Over the same period, however, according to Fortune magazine, the average real annual compensation of the top 100 CEO's went from $1.3M -- 39 times the pay of an average worker -- to $37.5M, more than 1K times the pay of ordinary workers...   The CBO study found that between 1979 and 1997, the after-tax incomes of the top 1% of families rose 157%, compared with only a 10% gain for families near the middle of the income distribution.
  Even more startling results come from a new study by Thomas Piketty, at the French research institute Cepremap, and Emmanuel Saez, who is now at the University of California at Berkeley.   Using income tax data, Piketty and Saez have produced estimates of the incomes of the well-to-do, the rich and the very rich back to 1913...   The economic historians Claudia Goldin and Robert Margo have dubbed the narrowing of income gaps during those years the Great Compression.   Incomes then stayed fairly equally distributed until the 1970s: the rapid rise in incomes during the first post-war generation was very evenly spread across the population...
  After 30 years in which the income shares of the top 10% of tax-payers, the top 1% and so on were far below their levels in the 1920's, all are very nearly back where they were.   And the big winners are the very, very rich...   Most of the gains in the share of the top 10% of tax-payers over the past 30 years were actually gains to the top 1%, rather than the next 9%.   In 1998 the top 1% started at $230.   In turn, 60% of the gains of that top 1% went to the top 0.1%, those with incomes of more than $790K.   And almost half of those gains went to a mere 13K tax-payers, the top 0.01%, who had an income of at least $3.6M and an average income of $17M...
  According to Piketty and Saez, in 1970 the top 0.01% of tax-payers had 0.7% of total income -- that is, they earned 'only' 70 times as much as the average, not enough to buy or maintain a mega-residence.   But in 1998 the top 0.01% received more than 3% of all income.   That meant that the 13K richest families in America had almost as much income as the 20M poorest households; those 13K families had incomes 300 times that of average families...
  Globalization can explain part of the relative decline in blue-collar wages, but it can't explain the 2,500% rise in CEO incomes.   Technology may explain why the salary premium associated with a college education has risen, but it's hard to match up with the huge increase in inequality among the college-educated, with little progress for many but gigantic gains at the top...   For a generation after World War II, fear of outrage kept executive salaries in check."
 

2002-10-21

2002-10-20 20:42PDT (23:42EDT) (2004-10-21 03:42GMT)
Barbara Hagenbaugh _USA Today_
Women fare better in recession than men

2002-10-20 21:01PDT (2002-10-21 00:01EDT) (2002-10-21 04:01GMT)
Andrea Coombes _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Keep on surfing: Spam, privacy concerns don't stop on-line users
"Matt Blumberg, chief executive at Return Path, an e-mail address service firm that commissioned the survey along with Global Name Registry.   'Then every time a consumer changes his or her e-mail address & forgets to update that business, it's costing that business.', Blumberg said, noting that recent research shows the cost of acquiring a new on-line customer is about $20, although it varies widely across industries...   The company's revenues come from companies willing to pay to get e-mail customer lists updated with new addresses.   Return Path only gives out new e-mail addresses upon the individual's approval, & only works with companies that use opt-in features, Blumberg said.   About 60% to 95% of Return Path's requests to divulge new addresses to businesses are approved by consumers, spokesman Tim Dolan said...   14% used a phony e-mail address, & that number jumped to 26% among the 18- to 34-year-old set.   The survey had an error rate of +/- 2.6...   An average user keeps 3.1 addresses, up 20% from 2.6 in 2000.   Of those surveyed, one in 10% had 4 or more personal e-mail addresses.   31% use extra addresses to sign up at Web sites, while 32% said avoiding spam was their main reason for having more than one address, up 11% from the earlier survey."

2002-10-21 04:00PDT (07:00EDT) (12:00GMT)
Marsha Zager _CIO Today_/_NewsFactor_
Where Are All the IT Jobs?
"Smaller companies often want to hire generalists -- 'a Jack or Jill of all trades', as Challenger put it -- while offering specialists only short-term contract employment.   Although two recent studies show that the number of IT lay-offs has been dropping, hiring remains slow, and salaries in many areas have taken a beating...   The first study, conducted by out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas , showed that job cuts in the high-tech sector fell 31% to 91K in the third quarter of 2002.   Telecommunications jobs accounted for nearly two-thirds of tech-sector lay-offs this year, while the remaining third occurred in the electronics, computer and e-commerce industries...   New hires fell from 2.1M in calendar year 2001 to 1.6M for the year ending 2002 June...   Diane Morello, vice president and research director at Gartner, told NewsFactor that many employees are no longer receiving performance increases or bonuses, and that companies are hiring at the midpoint of salary ranges rather than at the high end.   Allan Hoffman, tech jobs expert at Monster.com, agreed, saying that there appears to have been a reduction in salaries across 'a whole spectrum of the IT landscape', and that new hires' salaries are lower than laid-off workers' salaries were."

2002-10-21
Arianna Huffington
Upstairs/Downstairs: Disturbing Disparities In Wealth And Privilege

2002-10-21 14:56PDT (17:56EDT) (21:56GMT)
Julie Rannazzisi _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stocks soar to 6-week highs: Techs, financials spear-head advance

2002-10-21 12:35PDT (15:35EDT) (19:35GMT)
Margaret Quan _CMP_/_EE Times_
Unemployed EEs re-tool in attempt to survive
"Gary E. Johnson, an EE in Austin, Texas, was involved in IEEE employment activities for 10 years and served as chairman of its employment activities committee in 1998-1999, but he never thought he'd need help finding a job.   That changed in 2001 September when he was laid off from his Internet audio program management and business development position at Cirrus Logic Inc.   He is a representative for the IEEE-USA's employment and career services committee for a region that includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Missouri, Kansas and Wyoming.   Now he is running for election as IEEE USA member at large.   He has been searching for a job while his fiancee supports him.   'Everyone I know in high tech has had to leave Austin and even the state of Texas to find work.', Johnson said.   He's had 3 interviews over the last year and recently received an offer."

2002-10-21
Jennifer Bjorhus _San Jose Mercury News_
US economy stalling: Off-Shoring Hot
"The U.S. economy might be stalling, but at least one niche is hot: shipping technology jobs off-shore.   The economic slow-down is speeding up the export of jobs, experts say.   As executives face smaller budgets and more pressure for profits, they find it much cheaper to send work to contractors overseas.   More U.S. companies are following Silicon Valley's lead by shifting engineering and other technology-related jobs to places such as [Red China], Ireland, India and the Philippines to cut costs."

2002-10-21
Jennifer Bjorhus _San Jose Mercury News_
Slow-down sending tech jobs over-seas
"More U.S. companies are following Silicon Valley's lead by shifting engineering & other technology-related jobs to places such as [Red China], Ireland, India & the Philippines to cut costs...   About 200 of the Fortune 500 companies now ship software work overseas, according to Stephanie Moore, an out-sourcing expert at Giga Information Group in Cambridge, MA.   Fortune 1000 companies are quickly following.   Moore estimates that global revenue from off-shore software work will hit $7.68G this year, up 20% from 2001.   Forrester Research estimates that corporate budgets for off-shore software out-sourcing will probably more than double by 2004.   Valley technology companies pioneered the concept of going off-shore for tech talent more than a decade ago, along with General Electric & M$...   Target, Visa International, Gap, Boeing, Citigroup, Nordstrom, Bank of America, &, of course, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard & M$...   San Francisco brokerage Charles Schwab last year moved part of its information technology division to a contractor in Bangalore, India, where about 150 people do programming for Schwab's internal computer networks & Web site.   The move followed a 25% companywide lay-off...   Franklin Templeton Investments in San Mateo...   Even the state of California has contracts worth $76.6M with 5 tech services firms that out-source some tech work over-seas, according to records maintained by the state's Department of General Services...   IBM Global Services; Accenture, a Bermuda-based Arthur Andersen spin-off; Electronic Data Systems [EDS]; Computer Sciences [CSC]; & PriceWaterhouseCoopers... Cognizant Technology Solutions...   A software engineer fresh from college in India might earn $5K a year, compared to about $50K in the United States...   The jobless rate for all engineering doubled in the second quarter of this year, from 2% to 4%, & increased even more for computer scientists & electronics engineers, according to the IEEE-USA, the U.S. arm of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers."
 

2002-10-22

2002-10-21 21:02PDT (2002-10-22 00:02EDT) (2002-10-22 04:02GMT)
Kristen Gerencher _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Because of weak economy, fewer work multiple jobs
"About 5.4% of the work-force -- 7.2M Americans -- held more than one job last month, a rate that's been steadily edging down since 1996, when 6.2% of workers moon-lighted on average, said John Stinson, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)."

2002-10-22
_The Economic Times of India_
Local firms' share of US tech spends to double to 6%
"Information technology (IT) spending for work out-sourced by US to Indian corporations is likely to double next year.   According to a recent survey of US corporations conducted by Merrill Lynch, India is likely to account for 6% of the total IT budget of these corporations, against 3% this year.   The survey covered 50 chief information officers (CIOs) from major US IT user organisations, commercial & government.   The survey says that out-sorcing from domestic firms is rising the fastest among all outside service categories including traditional out-sourcing companies (IBM, EDS, CSC), business continuity disaster recovery firms, traditional consulting firms (Accenture [i.e. Arthur Andersen after they were caught in the Enron fraud], KPMG, Deloitte) & other business process out-sourcers."

2002-10-22 08:01:21PDT (11:01:21EDT) (15:01:21GMT)
Frank Barnako "Internet Daily" _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Net Ad Sales Off in Second Quarter
"Internet advertising sales in the second quarter totaled $1.46G, according to an
Internet Advertising Bureau report.   That's a decrease of 4.1% from the prior quarter & a fall of almost 21% from a year ago, according to research conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers' New Media Group.   'The results come as no surprise.', Greg Stuart, president & CEO of the New York-based IAB.   The research also found the largest segment of advertisers using on-line were targeting consumers.   Fully 97% of ad dollars were spent on sites operated by "top 50" media companies, while 46% of all ad sales used cost-per-thousand people reached & 'performance contracts' accounted for 15% of spending."

2002-10-22
The Scams and Problems of H-1B Visas

2002-10-22 04:45PST (07:45EST) (12:45GMT)
Margaret Quan _EE Times_
Un-employed EEs re-tool to survive
"Some un-employed EEs are pursuing careers outside of high-tech where job prospects are brighter to stay financially afloat during the electronics industry down-turn.   But the security of a position today may make it difficult for them to find engineering work in the future once the industry recovers, experts said...   The exact number of un-employed engineers is not known, but the US Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that US companies cut 437K high-tech jobs between 2001 January and 2002 June.   Over 1M US workers have lost their jobs since the beginning of 2002, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas, an out-placement consulting organization...   Nick Corcodilos, president of North Bridge Group Inc and author of 'Ask the Headhunter' at _The Work Circuit_, an EE Times Network community site, said his work as a recruiter of engineers after previous down-turns showed that 'it was very difficult if not impossible for engineers who left engineering for more than a year to find jobs.   As long as there were engineers who had continuous employment available, [those who left the profession] didn't get hired.'"

2002-10-22
John Pletz _eCommerce Times_
Cheaper Labor Drawing High-Skilled Tech Jobs from U.S.

2002-10-22
Sarah Jane Tribble _Charlotte Observer_
Bank of India (formerly known as Bank of America) is sending more work abroad
"The Charlotte-based bank has already slashed 12.7% of its nationwide technology and operations work force to 22K this month from 25,200 in 2001.   But more cuts are planned [through 2003], bank spokeswoman Lisa Gagnon confirmed Monday...   the bank is sending to India software programming that is now done in-house...   software programming... call center workers & business analysts...   The bank has shrunk its work force by 6.7% during the past 12 months to 134,135 nationwide from 143,824...   A recent survey of Fortune 1000 chief information officers showed that the number of companies out-sourcing more than 3% of their information technology budget to India increased to 62% in 2001 from 32% in 2000...   After a series of acquisitions, the bank has been consolidating its operations...   Last week, it beat analysts' estimates and reported a third-quarter net income of $2.24G, or $1.45 per share, up from $841M, or $0.51 per share, reported a year ago...   severance will be canceled if the employees talk to the media or quit before a certain date.   They've also been asked to help train their Indian counterparts before their final day...   Another technology and operations employee is angry that a bank with a red, white & blue logo is taking jobs away from Americans by out-sourcing to foreign companies."
 

2002-10-23

2002-10-23
Elaine L. Chao
Conference on Productivity
alternate link
alternate link
"Since 1947, both real hourly compensation & productivity have tripled...   Throughout the 1990s, we saw productivity growth at the same time that national unemployment rates fell to their lowest levels in a generation.   Even today, as productivity continues to increase, unemployment levels remain far lower than in previous economic down-turns...   Despite the recent slow-down, productivity growth has held up well since the latter part of 2000.   In the 5 quarters since the business cycle peaked in 2001, productivity has risen at an annualized rate of 3.8% -- stronger than any other down-turn since 1969.   In fact, between 1995 & 2000, productivity grew by 2.5% a year.   Compare that to an annual growth rate of just 1.4% between 1973 & 1995...   the '21st Century Workforce'.   By that phrase, I mean a work-force that is flexible, skilled & diverse enough to respond to the needs of a rapidly changing economy.   It's not surprising that today's highly productive work-force is led by the 'Baby Boom' generation -- the most highly educated generation of workers in our history.   In just the last 20 years, the number of workers with college degrees has more than doubled...   can we stimulate productivity further by investing in human capital through training & education?"
 

2002-10-24

2002-10-24
Yograj Varma _DataQuest_
Catch 22: The Changing Face of the ITeS Employee
"Today's call centers are manned by 22-year-olds, transient and waiting for a bigger break.   Of tomorrow, no one knows.   And that's giving recruiters, already fighting attrition of over 60%, sleepless nights...   Globally, companies have always sought new ways to increase profitability, either by increased revenues or cutting costs.   Out-sourcing work to countries like India -- where per-employee costs are about one-tenth or one-eighth that of similarly skilled people in the US and the UK -- reaps huge benefits.   Also, given the low-paying and unexciting nature of the ITeS job, call centers in the US and UK find it difficult to get enough suitably-literate employees willing to work at the wages offered...   According to a Nasscom-McKinsey report, the cost of replacing a knowledge worker is about 1.5-2 times his salary."

2002-10-24
_Silicon India_ Out-sourcing set to boom in 2003
"Infosys Technologies Ltd said on Wednesday a survey among its clients showed that a majority of them plan to step up technology out-sourcing in 2003 compared with this year...   half of those surveyed listed the launch of new IT projects or programs as their primary strategic objective for the coming year...   the need to out-source is increasing with 75% expected their 2003 out-sourcing levels to be higher than last year & as many as 97% consider off-shoring as part of their out-sourcing strategy."
 

2002-10-25

2002-10-25 08:30PST (11:30EST) (16:30GMT)
Irwin Kellner _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Productivity gains have a dark side
"From Alan Greenspan on down, policy-makers are extolling the virtues of productivity growth as an aid to corporate profitability without mentioning the flip side: its restraint on employment...   When business is more efficient, it can give its workers pay increases without having to raise selling prices.   This boosts employees' buying power, enabling them to buy more of the goods & services that Corporate America produces.   Business sales rise which increases profits.   More important, margins widen as well, since greater efficiencies mean lower unit costs... employment, production, sales & income...   And of these 4, employment is the only statistic that is currently weaker than its historical trend...   The duration of unemployment is now at its highest level in 8 years, with an increasing number of people out of work for 27 weeks or longer."

2002-10-25 09:21PST (12:21EST) (17:21GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Core capital spending down 6.6%

2002-10-25 14:16PST (17:16EST) (22:16GMT)
Julie Rannazzisi _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US Stocks End with gains for third straight week

2002-10-25
Lisa Vaas _eWeek_/_CorpWatch_
USA Tech Budget Cuts Gut IT Head-Counts & Salaries
"there's not much left to cut, what with the past few years' drastic staffing reductions and contract renegotiations.   Out of a panel of 25K IT professionals in 34 countries that provide Meta with data on an on-going basis, 47.6% said they had cut IT staff, with the majority slashing between 10% and 15% of staff.   Personnel cuts have been severe because workers are seen as expendable, according to the report's author, Howard Rubin, Meta Group executive vice president and chief strategy officer...   '...They consider people to be variable costs.   They can't throw mainframes out the window and not pay for them.   But 64% of companies, if faced with a cut, will take out people.'...   Meta surveyed member companies to see if they are, in fact, experiencing a skill shortage.   Their results: 62% of respondents reported that they're 'not at all' experiencing a skill shortage, 22% said they're 'somewhat' experiencing a skill shortage and only 16% said they are indeed experiencing a shortage of skills...   The average number of hours IT workers spent working per year in the U.S.A. is now at 1,992.   That's down from 2,080 in 2001, which in turn is down from 2,157 in 2000.   Non-U.S. IT workers are putting in 1,843 hours per year, which has barely moved down from the average of 1,883 hours per year worked in 2001.   Non-U.S. workers put in an average of 2,138 hours of work per year in 2000...   IT compensation in the United States is down, on average, $3K to $10K, depending on the position."

2002-10-25
Lisa Vaas _eWeek_
Tech Budget Cuts Gut IT Head-Counts, Salaries
"Out of a panel of 25K IT professionals in 34 countries that provide Meta with data on an ongoing basis, 47.6% said they had cut IT staff, with the majority slashing between 10% and 15% of staff.   Personnel cuts have been severe because workers are seen as expendable, according to the report's author, Howard Rubin, Meta Group executive vice president & chief strategy officer...   'But 64% of companies, if faced with a cut, will take out people.'...   the 10.4M-member U.S. IT work-force measured in 2001 had fallen by 50%, to 9.9M workers, in early 2002.   That's a net loss of 528,496 workers over the course of one year.   Companies hired 1.2M IT workers, but they also let go 2.6M IT staff...   62% of respondents reported that they're 'not at all' experiencing a skill shortage, 22% said they're 'somewhat' experiencing a skill shortage & only 16% said they are indeed experiencing a shortage of skills.   Those organizations that are hiring are finding that systems & network analysts are the easiest personnel to acquire, & metrics & testing personnel are the hardest to find.   The following is a list of areas of expertise, ranked according to how easily survey respondents are finding people who have the expertise:

1. systems analyst;
2. network analyst/architect;
3. Web specialist/designer;
4. systems designer/architect;
5. systems administrator;
6. development programmer;
7. data-base analyst;
8. documentation/training;
9. project leader;
10. support programmer;
11. business analyst;
12. QA specialist;
13. metrics/process specialist;
14. test engineer.

2002-10-25
_Business Week_
A Lost Generation of Job Seekers?: The young and those in mid-career are bearing the brunt of lay-offs.   And new jobs are harder to find, as older workers can't afford to retire
"Now, many of them feel like a lost generation, worried that their peak earning years are behind them even as their expenses jump.   For the youngest, the costs of raising families & paying mortgages lie ahead.   For those closer to middle age, the burdens are heavier...   young workers are being jettisoned right and left as companies make more room for older people many previously thought of as corporate has-beens.   As opportunities for younger workers become more scarce, their elders are staying on or returning to work, often desperate to rebuild diminished retirement savings...   At the height of the boom in early 2000, 88% of all men in the U.S. from the ages of 20 to 44, excluding those in the military, jail, and other institutions, had jobs.   By 2002 September, only 85% had jobs.   For women 20 to 44, the employed share fell from a peak of 73.5% in early 2000 to 70.6% in 2002 September.   Although women aged 45 to 54 fared slightly better -- 73.5% of them remained employed, a small drop from 73.9% -- their male counterparts were hard hit: 84.8% of them had jobs, down from 85.9% a year earlier.   Surprisingly, older workers are the only ones who have done well.   The share of men 55 to 64 with jobs rose from 65.9% to 67.2% over the past year, and the share of women 55 to 64 with jobs grew from 51.7% to 54.4%...   The number of those taking the law-school placement test is up 17% this year, & B-school applications for this fall's class were up 25% to 30%...   Only 70% of the graduates of BusinessWeek's top 30 business schools landed jobs by graduation last spring -- a lower percentage than during the last recession...   Harvard Business School, where nearly 20% of 2002 grads had still not found work by graduation...   40% of executives aged 55 and older who are applying for jobs now are doing so because of damage to their retirement portfolios..."
NBER says recession that troughed in 2001 April ended 2001 November.   The stock market crashed 2000-03-10.   The STEM job markets were already diving by 2000 September, and general job markets in mid-2001.   STEM product sales were tanking all through 2001 and 2002.   Job markets still had not fully recovered by the end of 2016.
 

2002-10-26

2002-10-25 16:02PST (19:02EST) (2002-10-26 00:02GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Jobs key to recovery, & the Fed
"Consumer & business spending appear to have slowed in August & September...   Only about 12K non-farm pay-roll jobs were added in October after a loss of 43K jobs in September, economists predict.   T hey think the unemployment rate likely jumped to 5.8% from 5.6%.   The September jobs report was an oddity.   The establishment survey of about 300K businesses was mainly on the weak side, while the household survey of 60K homes was strong...   For economists, the most hopeful sign in the September report was the 0.4% increase in total hours worked in the economy & the increase in the average work week to 34.3 hours, matching the highest level since the recession began.   Businesses always push their existing workers harder before they are willing to hire new, untested &, on the margin, more expensive workers.   The hours-worked data are the best leading indicators of the labor market we have.   For workers & voters, the jobless rate is the most important economic statistic."
 

2002-10-27

2002-10-27
_Economic Times of India_
The New Job Market
 

2002-10-28

2002-10-27 21:05PST (2002-10-28 00:05EST) (2002-10-28 05:05GMT)
Bambi Francisco _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Tech faces profitless upgrade cycle
"There's $90G that remains as committed capital in the venture-capital industry, according to Thomson Venture Economics...   And indeed, [venture capitalists are] investing, funneling the majority of those dollars back into software.   In fact, in the last 10 years, software investments have been the leading investment sector for VCs to place their bets.   The good news is that the amount of investing in venture businesses dropped 26% to $4.5G in the last quarter, the lowest quarter since the first quarter of 1998, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Survey, released just on Tuesday.   But the bad news is that companies are still being funded, essentially putting more competition out on the playing field.   And of the 647 companies funded, software accounted for 180 deals, or 22%.   Software investments also account for 20% of all the investment dollars made in the private sector this year."

2002-10-28
Cora Daniels _Fortune_
Job stress is soaring
"[He] checked himself in for a 3-week stay at the Professional Renewal Center, an in-patient clinic 30 miles outside Kansas City that helps executives deal with addictions, depression, or, in his case, stress.   Afterward Haughom spent two more months at home before he was ready to return to work...   A host of new studies & plenty of anecdotal evidence show that stress in the work-place is sky-rocketing...
  executive development firm Schoonover Associates, which helps executives combat stress & balance their lives.   He has seen his practice surge 30% over the past 2 years...   According to a new study by the federal government's National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, more than half the working people in the U.S. view job stress as a major problem in their lives.   That's more than double the percentage in similar studies a decade ago.   The number of people who called in sick due to stress has tripled in the past 4 years.   Fully 42% of employees -- double the percentage a year ago -- think their co-workers need help managing stress.
  In an annual survey released last month by workplace research firm Marlin Co., 29% of respondents put themselves in the highest category of stress -- extreme or quite a bit -- the highest percentage in the poll's 6-year history.   And it's not just here in the U.S...
  Dr. Scott Stacy, clinical program director of the Professional Renewal Center, estimates that the average executive will skate dangerously close to burning out 2 or 3 times in his career...   The American Institute of Stress, a research group, estimates that stress & the ills it can cause -- absenteeism, burnout, mental health problems -- cost American business more than $300G a year...   85% of corporate executives don't use all the time off they're entitled to"

2002-10-28
Jill Carroll _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Don't Go the Extra Mile

2002-10-28
Kathleen Melymuka _ComputerWorld_
Salary Survey: The Luck of the Draw
"Our 2002 survey of IT professionals shows more than half (59.7%) of the 9,138 respondents had an average 6% up-tick in their salaries, although more than 70% of respondents were flatlined on bonuses.   Conversely, the average increase in pay for US workers was just 4% this year, according to the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.   A much smaller percentage of Computer World's survey-takers took pay cuts: 9.5% said their salaries dipped an average of 13.1%.   Roughly 30% reported no change in their salaries...   Pay increases for the majority averaged 6%, but the 9.5% who took a cut in salary lost twice that much.   Moreover, while 12% took home bigger bonuses this year, 18% received smaller ones."
 

2002-10-29

2002-10-28 23:36PDT (2002-10-29 02:36EDT) (06:36GMT)
Stephanie Armour _USA Today_
Faced with less time off, workers take more
"In 2002, the cost per employee for unscheduled absences reached an annual average of $789 -- an all-time high & an increase of nearly 30% since 2000, according to a study by CCH, a provider of human-resource & employment-law information...   The rate of unscheduled absences because of personal needs rose 21% in 2002...   The number of companies with paid vacation has fallen to 91% this year from 95% in 1999, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.   Companies offering paid personal days, aside from sick & vacation days, have dropped to 46% from 57%."

2002-10-29 06:55PDT (09:55EDT) (13:55GMT)
Irwin Kellner _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Bear market eats away at pension holdings
"Then in the late 1970s the 401(k) was invented.   Otherwise known as a defined contribution plan, 401(k)s were quickly embraced by employers because they were less costly and had fewer uncertainties.   All firms had to do was decide how much money to contribute each month; it was up to the employee to determine the best way to make these funds grow...   In 1981, the percentage of employees covered by defined benefit plans dropped to 60%.   In the past 2 decades, the shift to defined contribution plans accelerated.   Today, nearly 3 out of every 5 workers with company-sponsored pensions are in 401(k)s.   Another 20% are covered by both types of plans, while 20% have only the traditional defined benefit pension.   For companies, it means even lower profits, for governments, it means higher taxes, while for individuals with 401(k)s, it means a loss in their holdings of more than 20% [on average] in the past 2 years alone."

2002-10-29 07:58PDT (10:58EDT) (14:58GMT)
Bambi Francisco _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
First-time VC deals fall to 8-year lows
"Venture capitalists invested $4.5G in 647 companies in the third quarter, according to a survey released Tuesday by PricewaterhouseCooper, VentureEconomics, the National Venture Capital Association and MoneyTree.   The amount is down 26% from the second quarter, but down 84% from the peak in the second quarter of 2000 when $29.1G was invested in more than 1,300 companies.   The number of first-time financings was 159, the lowest number since the 4th quarter of 1994, according to Jesse Reyes, vice president at Venture Economics...   While software investments declined 10% from the previous quarter to $993M, they accounted for the biggest share of investments, 20% of the dollars invested.   Software investments have received the bulk of the VC dollars in 8 out of the past 10 years.   Of the 647 companies funded, software accounted for 180 deals, or 22%.   Software investments also account for 20% of all the investment dollars made in the private sector this year."

2002-10-29
_San Jose Business Journal_
Jobless now starting to migrate
"And if you're thinking about pulling up stakes and heading to another city to find work, you'll likely find the highways crowded with people in similar situations, according to a new study by out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.   The combination of a very tight job market and declining severance payments is forcing more job seekers to relocate, marking the first increase in relocation since the terrorist attacks scared most jobless persons out of taking the risk, Challenger says.   Willingness to relocate normally speeds job search success.   The percentage of jobless managers and executives relocating for new jobs jumped to 16% in the third quarter, a 33% increase over the second quarter when the relocation rate was a record low 12%, according to Challenger's latest Job Market Index, a quarterly survey of 3K discharged managers and executives.   Relocation had been on the decline beginning with the fourth quarter of 2001, which came on the heels of September 11.   Relocation dropped steadily from 17.3% in the third quarter of 2001 to the 12% rate in the second quarter of this year...   According to Challenger's latest Index, it is taking jobless managers and executives 3.8 months to find new positions.   The average length of severance is about 2.8 months...   'The job market will probably get worse before it gets better.   Right now employers are still eliminating jobs -- they cut 43K from their pay-rolls in September, according to the government's employment report."
 

2002-10-30

2002-10-29 21:08PST (2002-10-30 00:08EST) (2002-10-30 05:08GMT)
Mike Tarsala _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Buy tech stocks now, history says: Bad news plus election equals opportunity

2002-10-30 14:00PST (17:00EST) (22:00GMT)
Jim Jubak _CNBC_
Uncle Sam's crooked accounting
"In fiscal 2002, the federal government collected $1.8T in total receipts.   About $515G of that, however, was off-budget.   That $515G came from Social Security and Medicare taxes that Washington collected this year but didn't need to pay current benefits.   That 'surplus' gets 'deposited', on paper, into the Social Security & Medicare trust funds.   But it is then actually lent to the Treasury & used to pay other current bills...   The entire $336G surplus is an illusion created by excluding costs that everyone in Washington knows are coming...   The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that those costs will run between $1.5T and $2T and that the real 'guidance' isn't a surplus of $336G but a deficit of $1.2T to $1.7T over 10 years."

2002-10-30
Patrice Hill _Washington Times_
Tight job market frustrates millions
"The weak economic recovery this year has produced barely more than 150K new jobs -- less than the average number created in one month during the 1990s economic expansion.   With more than 8M people looking for work, long-term joblessness has become a significant problem for many...   During the recession, nearly 2M jobs were lost, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics...   John A. Challenger, president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago out-placement firm, said workers are experiencing 'a sequel to the jobless recovery' that lasted 15 months after the 1990-91 recession.   But the pain level may be even higher this time around for those who were once highly paid in technical and management jobs, he said.   Nearly half of those out of work for at least 6 months today are high-income professionals, a record for that category, he said...   The average length of severance pay has plunged by more than half, to 10 weeks from 21.8 weeks in 1999, he said.   And the drop in pay occurred just as the length of time it takes workers to find new jobs climbed to an average 18 weeks...   More than 3M workers are drawing extended unemployment benefits.   But about 2M are expected to run out of benefits by the end of the year."
 

2002-10-31

2002-10-31 05:35PST (08:35EST) (13:35GMT)
Rachel Koning _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Data show job market weak, stabilizing: Tame labor costs show inflation not in Fed's way
"The 4-week moving average of jobless benefits applicants fell to its lowest mark since late August, yet has remained above the key 400K-threshold for 9 weeks in a row...   the weekly number of first-time jobless claims, which is much more vulnerable to seasonal swings, rose 16K to 410K in the week ending [2002] October 26, the Labor Department reported Thursday.   The 4-week moving average was 401,750, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 405,250...   The number of unemployed Americans who continue to collect insurance checks each week increased 76K to 3.62M.   Its 4-week moving average, at 3.6M, fell to its lowest mark in a month."

2002-10-31 05:00PST (08:00EST) (13:00GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Firms scale back expansion plans: Weak capital spending, hiring could stall recovery
"Hiring and capital spending remain very fragile, with more firms scaling back than expanding, according to a survey of 108 members of the National Association for Business Economics released Thursday...   Hiring also remains weak, with 13% of firms increasing pay-rolls and 27% cutting jobs.   Services & financial companies are adding jobs, but transportation, utilities & communications companies continue to cut drastically.   Hiring will remain soft for the next 6 months, the survey said."

2002-10-31 05:40PST (08:40EST) (13:40GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Auto sales drive GDP higher: Small rise in capital spending contributes to 3.1% growth
"Business spending on equipment & software picked up as well, adding 0.5 percentage points to growth.   Investments in equipment & software rose at a 6.5% pace, the best in 10 quarters.   Sales of computers rose at a 74.6% annual rate...   Government spending rose 1.8%.   State and local government spending rose 1.2% after contracting 1.7% in the second quarter.   Federal spending growth slowed, rising 2.9% after rising 7.5% in the second quarter.   Defense spending rose 5.1% while non-defense spending fell 0.9%."

2002-10-31 13:59:03
Bill Gates: Indians have given M$ a lot

2002-10-31 13:42PST (16:42EST) (21:42GMT)
Martin Crutsinger _Yahoo!_/_AP_
Economy rebounds to 3.1% growth in summer, but worries remain over future activity

2002-10-31 17:25ET
_MarketWatch_
Stocks finish best month in 15 years: Closed mixed, with Nasdaq up slightly

2002-10-31
Margaret Steen _San Jose Mercury News_
Morale sinking among survivors of slump
"Compounding the stress is the extra work that many employees are shouldering.   Not every lay-off results in more work for those left behind.   In some cases, an entire project or product is canceled, & the work disappears with it.   But often, the laid-off employees' work is simply given to those who remain...   Budgets for everything from new projects to training have been slashed.   Raises & promotions are rare, & those who decide to look elsewhere for jobs find slim pickings...   unemployment in Santa Clara County is near an almost 20-year high..."

2002-10-31
Sue McAllister _San Jose Mercury News_
Homes in foreclosure rise 21% in region
"For the 9-county Bay Area, 3,043 home-owners received default notices in the third quarter, up 20.9% from a year earlier & 6.7% from the second quarter, according to DataQuick Information Systems...   Statewide, 17,925 home-owners received notices of default last quarter, the lowest level since DataQuick began tracking default notices in 1992.   The third-quarter numbers were a 4% decline compared with a year earlier, and a 1.4% decrease from the second quarter of this year...   The all-time high for default notices was in the 1996 first quarter, when 44,665 were recorded in California and 6,828 in the Bay Area."

2002-10-31
Todd Anten _HotJobs_
Going, Going, Gone: ReLocation Basics
"In 2001, the number of people who moved to another state for work jumped 11%, according to US census data...   Almost three-fourths of companies surveyed by Atlas Van Lines have some kind of formal relocation policy.   94% of big firms (those with more than 5K employees) have such policies.   These programs vary in terms of benefits.   Many include a stipend to pay for movers, short-term corporate housing & a reimbursement to cover realtor fees."

2002 October

2002 October
Erick Schonfeld _Business 2.0_
B2 100: The Best Companies in the Worst of Times

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